Tricks to Intarsia Knitting
Like Fair Isle knitting, intarsia knitting lets you combine different yarns in one knitted project. Unlike Fair Isle knitting, intarsia knitting requires you to knit with two separate balls of yarn rather than carrying two strands of yarn along the backside of your work. If you've never knitted intarsia before, it can seem intimidating -- and it may take you more than a few rows to get the hang of the technique. But once you've mastered this technique, you'll appreciate the knitting possibilities it opens up.
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Twist and Change
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When you switch from one yarn to another yarn, twist the yarn so that your new yarn goes behind the last stitch in the previous color. When you switch yarns you can end up with a gap in your knitting that looks a little like an unintentional yarn-over, but twisting the yarn -- so that the first yarn is pulled in front of the first stitch of the new yarn -- seals the gap, making a neat transition from one color to the next. When you're doing it right, the back of your knitting should have what look like dotted lines of the old color wherever you've changed colors.
Stay Flat
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You can't do intarsia in the round, so if you're working on a hat, sock or sweater and want to add intarsia, you'll need to plan to knit it flat and seam it up instead of knitting it in the round. That's because when you knit something using intarsia, you'll need to knit back and forth -- making stitches on the front side and then on the back side -- to create your image. One exception: Plain stripes, the simplest form of intarsia, can be done in the round.
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Mark Your Chart
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Even simple intarsia can get complicated if you're interrupted mid-stitch, so keep your pattern beside you and always use a pen or highlighter to mark where you are when you get up. If you prefer written instructions, intarsia is a great opportunity to build your chart-reading skills -- most intarsia patterns are much simpler to read and follow in chart form than they are in written form. As with most knitting projects, intarsia knitting is easier to pick up when you stop work at the end of a row.
Sort Your Strands
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If you're working on a simple, two-yarn intarsia project, you can probably juggle two balls of yarn without too much difficulty. But if your intarsia project calls for three or more colors and frequent changes within rows, it's easy to end up with your yarn in a tangled mess. A simple solution is to wind a generous amount of each color of yarn on its own bobbin or cardboard rectangle -- much the same way you'd wind embroidery thread when you're working on a sewing project. You can leave the secured yarn dangling from your project while you work, keeping it handy for when you need to pick up a new color.
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References
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